The Toll In Mexico City

September 24, 1985

The deadly earthquake that shook Mexico`s capital city could hardly have come at a more dangerous time or place. Mexico City is overcrowded and teeming with unemployed people for whom life is hard in the best of times. The country, already mired in debt, simply cannot afford to rebuild what it has lost. The human toll has been dreadful. The official death count already approaches 3,000. Thousands have been treated for injuries. And many thousands more have been left without homes and possessions.

While President Miguel de la Madrid has expressed his gratitude for American sympathy and generosity, he has declared that Mexico had ``all of the necessary resources`` for disaster relief and that no foreign assistance would be sought.

But his foreign secretary, Bernardo Sepulveda, has made it clear that help from the United States and other countries would be welcome as

``spontaneous aid`` that was not being solicited, and on humanitarian grounds could not be refused.

Though those declarations reflect an admirable spirit of independence and penchant for self-help, they also are consistent with Mexico`s tradition of declining direct aid from the United States--even though the nation has been laboring under an $80 billion national debt brought on by the global oil glut. Many Mexicans are sensitive to the political influence their powerful northern neighbor can exert and fear the unwanted political strings that can dangle from any official aid program.

America, however, must be generous in providing both official and private aid--without strings--to the victims of the disaster and the government that must care for them. More than a neighborliness is involved.

The strength of the Mexican government is of vital interest to the United States. The economies of the two countries are interdependent in many ways. We share a elements of a common heritage, and many Americans look upon Mexico as their ancestral homeland. The links between the the United States and Mexico are more basic than the fact of a common border.

And so when Mexico suffers, the United States suffers. And if proud Mexico needs help, the United States must find a way discreetly to lend a hand.